(14/10/2000)
Riga were rocked by the departures of two important players this week. Defensive specialist Mark Fearn and centre player Richard Meade both declared a desire to take a break from volleyball, leaving the squad down to a bare six and disrupting preparations for Saturday’s National League Division One match against Portsmouth. Despite starting brightly, Riga fell to a disappointing three-one defeat. What happened during the week didn’t help us but we could have won if we’d kept our heads was captain Tom Young’s summation after the match.
Portsmouth found it difficult to climb out of the starting blocks in the first set. Their errors, combined with a free scoring Riga set-up, soon had them 12 --6 down. At this point it was difficult to see a weak link in the home six as Phil Wyles dictated play and his hitters, John Gilling, Tom Young and Graham Duckett in particular, exposed a fragile visiting defence. The Riga block too performed at its best for some time and it was fitting that a David Nason effort sealed the set at 25 - 18.
From then on however things got worse. Despite travelling without the dominant Marcus Russell, Portsmouth’s armoury still included England international Morph Bowes. His blitzkrieg serving opened a visiting advantage of 5 - 1 in the second set from which Riga failed to recover. At 17 - 11 to Portsmouth, there was only one team who would take the set and at 25 - 18, they levelled the match.
Despite some good scrambling defence, Riga found the final killing touch missing. That was certainly the case in the third set as they went down 25 - 14. The writing was on the Riga wall early in the fourth set as Portsmouth took a 7 - 4 lead. The home side lacked the collective mental equipment to successfully play the game of catch-up. Despite drawing close, Portsmouth always had the edge and ran out winners 25 - 21
"They say you make your own luck," said a disappointed captain Tom Young after the game. "Well I’ll be on to our supplier first thing Monday to find out what’s happened to our raw materials. We should have won this game without a doubt, but when you’ve only got six players, there’s no hiding place at all."
Riga’s women’s Division Two side were also at home at the St. Nicholas Park Leisure Centre, when they entertained Tameside on Sunday. Unfortunately for them, the score line was a repeat of their opening match against Leeds - a three-two defeat. Despite the efforts of Riga’s woman of the match, Emma Wood, the side threw away a 14 - 8 lead in the deciding fifth set to be edged out 17 - 15. Speechless, was the only word a shell-shocked coach Paul Sutton could utter after the match. Despite the close result, action will have to be taken soon to prevent the team from slipping into the relegation mire.